Pentatonix (Band)
, Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Kirstie Maldonado & Kevin Olusola.]] , Kirstie Maldonado, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi & Kevin Olusola.]] Pentatonix (often abbreviated as PTX) is an American a cappella group of five vocalists originating from Arlington, Texas; Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, Kevin Olusola and Matt Sallee. Avi Kaplan was formerly a member of the group. Their work - mostly in, but not limited to, the pop music style - consists of covers of existing songs, sometimes in the form of medleys, and some original material. Their music is defined by their own arrangement style, a strong presence of low bass vocals, and a diverse range of vocal percussion. In 2011 they won the 3rd season of "The Sing-Off". This won them $200,000 and a recording contract. Since then Pentatonix has been selling out shows all over the world. Their Youtube channel (PTXofficial) has nearly reached 15 million subscribers with over 3.1 billion views, and they were also featured in YouTube Rewind 2014. They did a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MteSlpxCpo "Daft Punk" medley], and a cover of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", both of which were Grammy Nominated for Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella and won. The video for "Daft Punk" has gained almost 300,000,000 views on Youtube as of December 2018. Their 2014 Holiday album "That's Christmas to Me" went double Platinum, and their 2015 original album "Pentatonix" went gold. They have won 3 Grammy Awards. In 2015 their cover of "Daft Punk" won in the category Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella. In 2016 their cover of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" won in the same category. These two Grammy they won together with their arranger Ben Bram. In 2017 they won a Grammy for their cover of "Jolene" with Dolly Parton in the category Best Country Duo/Group Performance. History Formation and The Sing-Off Pentatonix started as Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado and Mitch Grassi, "The Trio". The three went to Martin High School in Arlington, Texas and were in choirs and drama groups together. They oringially arranged a trio version of Telephone by Lady GaGa and Beyoncé to enter a radio competition to meet the cast of Glee. They did not win, however, but it sparked attention around their school and even on YouTube where they continued arranging songs on Scott Hoying's channel. In 2011 Hoying decided he wanted to try out for the third season of NBC''s ''The Sing-Off, a televised a capella singing competition. During this time both Maldonado and Hoying had graduated and started attending different universities while Grassi was still at Martin High School as a senior. A member from Hoying's college a capella group the SoCal Vocals, suggested they find a beat boxer and vocal bassist to add to their already formed trio of singers to add to their sound. Through a mutual friend, Hoying met Avi Kaplan who already had a reputation for being "an amazing bass in the central California area" and the trio found Kevin Olusola on YouTube around the same time when one of Olusola's videos was going viral of himself beatboxing while playing the cello. The groups only chance to meet was the day before the auditions for The Sing-Off and Grassi had to skip his high school graduation to make it. They made it onto the show and eventually went on to win the show in November 2011. The group says they're influenced by many styles of music such as pop, dubstep, elecro and hip-hop. But individually they all have very different styles of music they enjoy which they say helps when it comes to arrangements. Post Sing-Off Their main YouTube Channel, PTXofficial, have reached almost 15 million subscribers and over 3,194,990,800 views since it began in September 2011. The group often post videos of the performing covers live in one take using no editing or effects, and they also collaborate with Fifgenfilms to make higher quality, professionally recorded music videos. They often attribute to their continued success after The Sing-Off to their YouTube platform and their dedicated national and international fanbase. The group has held various livestream shows as well. Members *Scott Hoying - baritone lead and backing vocals (2011–present) *Mitch Grassi - counter-tenor lead and backing vocals (2011–present) *Kirstie Maldonado - mezzo-soprano lead and backing vocals (2011–present) *Kevin Olusola - vocal percussion, beatboxing, tenor backing vocals, cello (2011–present) *Matt Sallee - vocal bass, bass lead and backing vocals (2017–present) **He joined the group for a holiday performance in October 2017, but later became a permanent part of the group. Former members *Avi Kaplan - vocal bass, vocal percussion, bass lead and backing vocals (2011–2017) **On May 12, 2017, he announced, that he had chosen to leave the group. On September 3, 2017, he had his last performance as a part of PTX. Name The name Pentatonix comes from the widely used scale in all music, the Pentatonic Scale. The 'x' was added to make it more appealing and "futuristic". Albums *''"PTX, Vols. 1 & 2"' - July 30, 2014 *"PTX"'' - September 19, 2014 *''"That's Christmas to Me"'' - October 21, 2014 (a deluxe album was released October 30, 2015, with 5 bonus track) *''"Pentatonix"'' - October 16, 2015 *''"A Pentatonix Christmas"'' - October 21, 2016 (a deluxe album was released on October 20, 2017, with 5 bonus tracks) *''"PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. I"'' - April 13, 2018 *''"Christmas Is Here!"'' - October 26, 2018 Extended plays *''"PTX, Volume 1"'' - June 26, 2012 *''"PTXmas"'' - November 13, 2012 (a deluxe album was released November 19, 2013, with 2 bonus tracks) *''"PTX, Vol. II"'' - November 5, 2013 *''"PTX, Vol. III"'' - September 23, 2014 *''"PTX, Vol. IV - Classics"'' - April 7, 2017 Singles *"Gangnam Style" (Live) - 2012 *''"Radioactive"'' (featuring Lindsey Stirling) - 2013 *''"Daft Punk"'' - 2013 *''"Little Drummer Boy"'' - 2013 *''"Royals"'' - 2013 *''"Say Something"'' 2014 *''"Happy"'' - 2014 *''"Problem"'' - 2014 *''"La La Latch"'' - 2014 *''"Mary, Did You Know?"'' - 2014 *''"Cheerleader"'' - 2015 *''"Can't Sleep Love"'' - 2015 *''"If I Ever Fall in Love"'' (featuring Jason Derulo) - 2016 *''"Jolene"'' (featuring Dolly Parton) - 2016 *''"Hallelujah"'' - 2016 *''"Dancing on My Own"'' - 2017 *''"Havana"'' - 2018 *''"Making Christmas"'' - 2018 *''"The Sound of Silence"'' - 2019 *''"Come Along"'' - 2019 *''"Waving Through A Window"'' - 2019 *''"Shallow"'' - 2019 Tours Headlining *Tour 2012 (2012) *Tour 2013 (2013) *World Tour 2014 (2014) *On My Way Home Tour (2015) *Pentatonix World Tour (2016-2017) *A Pentatonix Christmas Tour (2017) *PTX Summer Tour 2018 (2018) *Christmas Is Here! Tour (2018) *Pentatonix: The World Tour (2019-present) Opening act *Piece by Piece Tour (2015) External Links Official Website YouTube: PTXofficial PTXvlogs Facebook: @Pentatonix Twitter: @PTXofficial Instagram: @ptxofficial Category:Members